Athletes engaged in participating in strenuous sports activities must frequently drink water or other desired fluids during the course of their activities. This is necessary to maintain the body fluid level at a desired state in view of the relatively high physiological consumption of fluids as a consequence of muscular exertion and also the loss of such body fluids through the perspiration process. It has become a common practice for such athletes to utilize a personal type bottle which is normally of a one quart size and which, for sanitation purposes and convenience of drinking, is provided with a drinking tube that projects exteriorly of the bottle. The drinking tube is generally provided with an end cap at the exterior end for purposes of sanitation and to prevent entry of debris during such time as the bottle is merely resting on the ground or on any other type of supporting surface. These bottles are generally fabricated from a plastic material with the wall thickness being such that, when desired, the bottle may be partially collapsed in attempting to facilitate the drinking operation.
Athletes have different personal desires as to utilization of the drinking bottles. One type of use is that the user merely places the end of the drinking tube in his mouth and then sips or sucks on the tube to withdraw liquid from the interior from the bottle. This type of use requires either that there be a means to permit inflow of air to the bottle or that the user must intermittently release the tube so that air may then flow into the bottle. This is essential as a vacuum is otherwise generated such that withdrawal of the liquid is substantially prevented after a certain amount of liquid has been withdrawn, this depending upon the quantity of liquid that remains in the bottle and the amount of liquid desired at any particular time. The bottles heretofore available are neither designed nor capable of forming a fluid-tight seal with the drinking tube and a limited amount of air may enter the bottle during a sipping operation, thereby partially alleviating the vacuum problem.
A second major type of use of a bottle of this type is that the athlete squeezes the bottle to forcibly eject the liquid through the drinking tube. This technique of utilization of the drinking bottle requires that the bottle form a liquid-type seal with respect to the drinking tube and otherwise be closed so that collapsing of the flexible wall of the bottle will result in compression of the air in the bottle and thereby attempt to effect the forcible ejection of liquid through the tube. However, as indicated, the bottles heretofore available are not constructed to form a good fluid seal and this squeezing technique is not suitably effective.
While there are the two distinct types of utilization techniques and that generally each individual athlete has their own preference, it is not uncommon that a particular athlete at any specific time may desire to use one or other of the two techniques. The bottles presently on the market and used by athletes do not fully meet the requirements of operation to enable use in accordance with each of the two described techniques. The bottles as constructed do not form a good fluid seal as between the bottle and the drinking tube and thus when the collapsing technique is used, it is not uncommon for a liquid to escape at the juncture of the tube and a cap that is secured to a filling opening of the bottle. Alternatively, while the seal is not fully effective for use with the collapsing technique, the seal is usually sufficiently effective that it does impede inflow of air and thus requires the user to interrupt the drinking procedure at intervals to permit air to flow into the bottle through the drinking tube. Accordingly, the bottles do not provide the desired convenience of operation with each of the two common drinking techniques.